Recker's World
Reason 1
The Bible contains much out of touch and bad advice
When I was around 8 years old, my dad got a farm manager job in a little country town named Onewhero. It was there that I learned an invaluable lesson. To be honest, I didn’t actually learn the lesson then. It wasn’t until I was an adult, when I was able to look back and learn it based on these childhood experiences.
I discovered that blessing your enemies and turning the other cheek…” is not such good advice.
My mother always taught me you never repay ill-treatment with ill-treatment. Her well-meaning but out-of-touch advice, taken directly from the bible, was that if you were being bullied, just be nice to them. If you were treated really bad, tell the teacher.
Great advice, Mum. Telling the teacher is the worst possible thing you can do if you don’t want to become a social pariah at school. And simply letting the bully get away with his crap just makes you a target and they pick on you even more because they know you are weak.
At Onewhero School, there was a boy in my class. I don’t remember his name, but I’ll call him Borus. He enjoyed picking on me.
One afternoon, we were both called to the dental nurse at the same time. One thing we looked forward to, despite the dread of the buzzer, was to get a little cotton bud animal on a string afterwards. Every kid got one after having the buzzer. Everyone agreed that the coolest one was without a doubt the bumble bee.
When we got there, we found there was only one bumble bee and one far less interesting one.
I was the first one to have my teeth drilled, so thus the first to get to choose which cotton bud animal I wanted. I chose the bumble bee.
It didn’t last long, because later, as soon as Borus had the opportunity, he snatched it off me and tore it to pieces.
Not long after that incident, Borus ran out of note paper in class. For days on end he’d ask me for a sheet, because for some reason his parents didn’t provide him with a new one. Remembering my mother’s (and the bible’s) advice about being nice to my enemies I decided to lend him sheets. This went on for a few days and I generously allowed him a sheet each time he asked.
One day I decided to be particularly generous, doing what I thought Jesus would do in the situation. I offered him up my entire note pad and said to him, ‘Here, you have it and I’ll just ask you for a sheet when I need one.’
He took the jotter pad.
The next day I asked him for a sheet, he turned to me with a scowl and said, ‘No! It’s mine!’
It never stopped me from being kind to my enemies though and I continued to be as pleasant as I could to them, but it never did seem to do me any good. However, when I look back now, I can see this well-meaning bible advice doesn’t come from any all-knowing and wise god.
At sixteen years old, as a god-fearing, dedicated Christian kid. I scored a lawn mowing job for a couple from church, earning 10 dollars each time I did it. That was huge for me because back in the early 80’s, I only got a dollar a week pocket money.
With my lawn mowing money, I sometimes treated myself to a packet of chocolate biscuits and one day I cycled back home, holding onto this packet, when I came across some bullies from school on the side of the street.
One of them called out, ‘Hey, give us a biscuit.’
I was about to ride on but then thought, nope that’s not what Jesus would do. I’m going to bless my enemies, so I rode back to them and offered them a biscuit. They took three each and left me with two at the bottom of the pack.
Ass holes.
So much for blessing your enemy!
I will admit, that sometimes blessing your enemies does work. Sometimes you can make a friend of them. One guy at high school sat in a very effeminate manner with his feet apart and knees together as if wearing a skirt. He spoke a little Nancy too.
His name was Craig.
I, like most other people my age, had the homophobe bug. I would hassle him about the way he sat. He started to become irritated with that and we soon became enemies.
The following year, Craig turned out to be in my Home Economics class and we still didn’t like each other until one day I decided to do him a good turn. I decided to “bless my enemy” by supplying him with some butter for his cooking, because he hadn’t brought any. That day we went from enemies to friends and although we never hung out, we were always on good terms with each other. I found out years later that he was indeed gay and had even married a guy when gay marriages were legalized.
Sure, sometimes you can bless your enemies and it can make you a friend, but Craig was never a bully. It was a different story with those other guys. In fact, I found it to be the case with most bullies I came across during my life. Later, I learned that when it comes to certain people they will take advantage of you, if you let them get away with their crap.
One thing that I can most definitely conclude now is that none of these teachings can possibly come from a wise, all-knowing God. Just out-of-touch-with-reality people. And there is a lot more bad advice and teachings in the bible besides the two I mentioned.